Homemade Knitting Needle Case

Our budget is not tight exactly, but large purchases require a certain amount of time dedicated to saving up my spending allowance. So for a month or so, I was waiting to buy my KnitPicks harmony interchangeable needles, and had to pass the time somehow. I’d read complaints about the case KnitPicks includes with the needles, and although it looked alright to me (and is alright, now that it’s come in the mail), I decided to emulate some of the crafty knitting needle case creators on etsy and sew my own case. I looked at a bunch of the cases online, got an idea of the general form, and took a look at my needle collection (and prospective collection) to evaluate my own needs.

I wanted the Cadillac of knitting needle holders. All my needles must fit. After all, I’m not going to just tote around my circulars all by their lonesome. I probably won’t tote around any needles except ones used on a specific project. So this is my entire stash holder, with pockets long enough for 14″ straights, wide enough for interchangeable cables, fat enough for size 15 needles, and skinny and short enough for my size 4 interchangeable tips. I ended up with dimensions 19″ wide by 15″ tall and a 3″ flap at the top to keep the needles from sliding out. There are 42 (oh yeah!) pockets in three lengths, 3.5″, 6″, and 11.5″, and ranging from 3/4″ to 4 1/4″ wide.

I got to reuse the material I used to make a purple and brown lace jungle bedroom set for my 3 year old daughter, Isabel. Which is nice, because she’s decided that she’s no longer a purple jungle kind of girl. She’s an Iron Man girl.

I especially like my purple stitching and neat brass button closure. I was so very proud of sewing a button hole on a sewing machine. It was my first.

I would totally sew these up and sell them on etsy, but it took me over a month to work this one into my schedule with all that cooking, cleaning, digging up worms, running around the park, and chasing my 2 year old son around the house for the honor of changing his poopy diapers. I’m just not seeing that whole “cash cow” future my husband has planned for me in our golden years.

Options Interchangeable Harmony Wood Circular Knitting Needles Review

A few weeks ago my KnitPicks Harmony interchangeable needles arrived. My husband brought the mail in while I was busy at the stove, but I immediately abandoned dinner and eagerly ripped my package open. After using Boye aluminum needles and plastic cables, I was only too excited to see these puppies in action. But alas, dinner had to be finished. I was glancing over at them, counting the minutes until the children were in bed and I could grab my bag containing my in-progress Linux scarf (english) and switch out my Boye aluminum straight size 6 needles for the harmony 24″ circulars.

My aluminum needles were a little worn and sticking, so the change took a little getting used to. The harmony wood is smooth. The needles are pointy. I stabbed myself a few times before I altered my knitting habits to accommodate. At first I had to watch my knitting more carefully. The pointy ends were splitting the strands the way I was knitting. But several rows later, I was knitting faster and happier. First of all, knitting with circulars is much nicer if you’re sitting in a chair. The ends don’t stick out and hit anything. Also, the smooth wood lets even my crappy acrylic yarn just slide over. No sticking, no tugging. The gradual tapering of the needle makes it a lot easier to get the righthand needle under lefthand stitches close to the tip. The pointiness isn’t a problem for me anymore, it’s a precision tool plus. The cable-needle join is smooth, absolutely no complaints there. And I’ve had trouble getting the cables off, which is great. I don’t have to worry about them coming undone in the middle of a project. Not to mention, these are very pretty needles.

A couple of disappointments came with these lovely utilitarian needles, though. One is my own fault. I bought some longer cables since I didn’t see they sell a cable joiner separately. I thought they just didn’t make one. So now I’m sending the cables back and getting the joiner to keep my stash better organized. I think they should include this in the set, or at least include this on the item list page for circular interchangeables.

The next project I want to knit is a center out circular knit piece. With that in mind, I’m a little disappointed they only make 16″ circulars as fixed needles, though I understand they use shorter needle lengths to make a better circle at that size. I wouldn’t mind getting the fixed 16″ needles if I find myself making a lot of baby hats of a certain size, but I would love to have still smaller interchangeable cables, which makes me gaze longingly at the Denise Interchangeable sets. This review of the Denise needles suggests creating a tiny circular to work on sleeves, which would also be great for center out knitting or baby hats, since I hate double pointed needles. No matter how tightly I tug at the joins, there’s a big ole’ stitch there telling the world where it was.

So it seems my needle collection is incomplete. I still need double pointed needles of different sizes, and perhaps smaller fixed circulars. Except for the super-small circular knitting, these needles are fantastic to knit with. Of course, I’ve mostly knitted with aluminum, and have only tried bamboo for one project, but I still think the harmony wood needle set will be my favorite for some time.

My harmony needles in my homemade knitting case: